Abstract
Domestic species can make the distinction between several human sub-groups, especially between familiar and unfamiliar persons. The Domestication hypothesis assumes that such advanced cognitive skills were driven by domestication itself. However, such capacities have been shown in wild species as well, highlighting the potential role of early experience and proximity with humans. Nevertheless, few studies have been focusing on the use of acoustic cues in wild species and more comparative studies are necessary to better understand this ability. Cheetah is a vocal, semi-social species, often hand raised when captive, making it therefore a good candidate for studying the ability to perceive differences in human voices. In this study, we used playback experiments to investigate whether cheetahs are able to distinguish between the voices of their familiar caretakers and visitors. We found that cheetahs showed a higher visual attention, changed activity more often and faster when the voice was familiar than when it was unfamiliar. This study is the first evidence that wild felids are able to discriminate human voices and could support the idea that early experience and proximity to humans are at least as important as domestication when it comes to the ability to recognize humans.
Highlights
Domestic species can make the distinction between several human sub-groups, especially between familiar and unfamiliar persons
No study has ever tested the ability of wild felids to discriminate between different human voices, an ability found in their domestic cousins[28]
We tested the ability of captive cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) that had early and regular contacts with humans to discriminate familiar and non-familiar human voices
Summary
Domestic species can make the distinction between several human sub-groups, especially between familiar and unfamiliar persons. Semi-social species, often hand raised when captive, making it a good candidate for studying the ability to perceive differences in human voices. This study is the first evidence that wild felids are able to discriminate human voices and could support the idea that early experience and proximity to humans are at least as important as domestication when it comes to the ability to recognize humans. A few studies have demonstrated the ability of non-domestic animals to discriminate sub-groups of humans on the basis of non-visual cues, on the basis of voice recognition, in species both phylogenetically more (e.g. elephant (Loxondota Africana)[21], crow (Corvus corone)20) and less (e.g. non-human primates22–24) distant from humans. More comparative studies are needed, notably on non-visual modalities, to better understand the relative importance of daily human-animal interactions on the ability of captive wild animals to use human cues. We tested whether hand-raised male cheetahs could distinguish handlers’ voices from other humans’ (tourists of comparable age and sex) voices
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